Archive for January 7th, 2019

Guardians Of The Galaxy‘s Dave Bautista will reunite with his Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve for the latter’s upcoming version of Frank Herbert’s Dune, one of the biggest SF book series that has previously been a feature film from David Lynch and a Syfy (then Sci-Fi Channel) mini-series. Bautista’s role is not currently known. [Update: We now know he will play “The Beast” Rabban – as if there was any question…]

He will join Timothée Chalamet (Lady Bird), who will play hero Paul Atreides, and Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Fallout), who will play Lady Jessica.

The David Lynch film was a visual spectacle but a box office failure, with Lynch himself distancing himself claiming there was too much interference from the producers and financiers, and in some cuts the director was credited as “Alan Smithee”, a code name for a disavowed credit. The mini-series proved more successful, spawning a sequel series for Children of Dune, both of which were some of the highest rated programming on the network at the time.

Sheppard appeared in many genre shows…I first saw him that I recall in Shogun, but what I most remembered him from originally was in the role of Blank Reg, the mohawked pirate radio operator in Max Headroom. He also played the memorable and eponymous “Soul Hunter” on Babylon 5, and even played the older version of his son’s character of Cantor Everett Delaware III in the Doctor Who episode “The Impossible Astronaut”. More recently he appeared in an episode of The Librarians. His jovial face and white beard also earned him the the title role in Farewell Mr. Kringle, and he voiced “The Big Guy” in the Prep & Landing specials.